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'''Lojban''' (pronounced {{IPA|ˈloʒban||jbo-lojban.ogg}}) is a conlang, [[w:Syntactic ambiguity|syntactically unambiguous]] human language<!-- based on [[w:predicate logic]]--> created by the '''Logical Language Group.''' It succeeds the [[Loglan]] project. | '''Lojban''' (pronounced {{IPA|ˈloʒban||jbo-lojban.ogg}}) is a conlang, [[w:Syntactic ambiguity|syntactically unambiguous]] human language<!-- based on [[w:predicate logic]]--> created by the '''Logical Language Group.''' It succeeds the [[Loglan]] project. | ||
The Logical Language Group (LLG) began developing Lojban in 1987. The LLG sought to realize [[Loglan]]'s purposes, and further improve the language by making it more usable and freely available (as indicated by its official full English title, "Lojban: A Realization of Loglan"). After a long initial period of debating and testing, the baseline was completed in 1997, and published as ''The Complete Lojban Language''. In an interview in 2010 with ''[[w:The New York Times]]'', [[w:Arika Okrent]], the author of ''In the Land of Invented Languages'', stated: "The constructed language with the most complete grammar is probably Lojban—a language created to reflect the principles of logic."<ref>{{cite news |date=March 10, 2010 |url=http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/questions-answered-invented-languages/ |title=Questions Answered: Invented Languages |publisher=The New York Times Schott's Vocab blog}}</ref> | The Logical Language Group (LLG) began developing Lojban in 1987. The LLG sought to realize [[Loglan]]'s purposes, and further improve the language by making it more usable and freely available (as indicated by its official full English title, "Lojban: A Realization of Loglan"). After a long initial period of debating and testing, the baseline was completed in 1997, and published as ''The Complete Lojban Language''. In an interview in 2010 with ''[[w:The New York Times|The New York Times]]'', [[w:Arika Okrent|Arika Okrent]], the author of ''In the Land of Invented Languages'', stated: "The constructed language with the most complete grammar is probably Lojban—a language created to reflect the principles of logic."<ref>{{cite news |date=March 10, 2010 |url=http://schott.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/03/10/questions-answered-invented-languages/ |title=Questions Answered: Invented Languages |publisher=The New York Times Schott's Vocab blog}}</ref> | ||
==Introduction== | ==Introduction== | ||
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== Phonology and orthography == | == Phonology and orthography == | ||
The phonetic form of Lojban {{lang|jbo|gismu}} (root words) was created algorithmically by searching for sound patterns in words with similar meanings in world languages and by multiplying those sound patterns by the number of speakers of those languages. The list of source languages used for the algorithm was limited to the six [[w:List of languages by number of native speakers|most widely spoken languages]] as of 1987—[[w:Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], [[w:English language|English]], [[w:Hindi]], [[w:Spanish language|Spanish]], [[w:Russian language|Russian]], and [[w:Arabic]]. This resulted in root words being in their phonetic form a relatively equal mixture of English and Mandarin, with lesser influences from the other four.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lojban.github.io/cll/4/14/|title=The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology - The Lojban Reference Grammar|website=lojban.github.io}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mw.lojban.org/papri/me_lu_ju'i_lobypli_li'u_13_moi|title=me lu ju'i lobypli li'u 13 moi - La Lojban|website=mw.lojban.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mw.lojban.org/papri/me_lu_ju'i_lobypli_li'u_14_moi|title=me lu ju'i lobypli li'u 14 moi - La Lojban|website=mw.lojban.org}}</ref> | The phonetic form of Lojban {{lang|jbo|gismu}} (root words) was created algorithmically by searching for sound patterns in words with similar meanings in world languages and by multiplying those sound patterns by the number of speakers of those languages. The list of source languages used for the algorithm was limited to the six [[w:List of languages by number of native speakers|most widely spoken languages]] as of 1987—[[w:Mandarin Chinese|Mandarin]], [[w:English language|English]], [[w:Hindi|Hindi]], [[w:Spanish language|Spanish]], [[w:Russian language|Russian]], and [[w:Arabic|Arabic]]. This resulted in root words being in their phonetic form a relatively equal mixture of English and Mandarin, with lesser influences from the other four.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://lojban.github.io/cll/4/14/|title=The Shape Of Words To Come: Lojban Morphology - The Lojban Reference Grammar|website=lojban.github.io}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mw.lojban.org/papri/me_lu_ju'i_lobypli_li'u_13_moi|title=me lu ju'i lobypli li'u 13 moi - La Lojban|website=mw.lojban.org}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://mw.lojban.org/papri/me_lu_ju'i_lobypli_li'u_14_moi|title=me lu ju'i lobypli li'u 14 moi - La Lojban|website=mw.lojban.org}}</ref> | ||
Lojban is written almost entirely with lower-case letters; upper-case letters are used to mark stress in words that do not fit the normal rules of stress assignment, or when whitespace is omitted. | Lojban is written almost entirely with lower-case letters; upper-case letters are used to mark stress in words that do not fit the normal rules of stress assignment, or when whitespace is omitted. | ||
===Phonetic inventory=== | ===Phonetic inventory=== | ||
Lojban has 6 [[w:vowel]] | Lojban has 6 [[w:vowel|vowels]] and 17 [[w:consonant|consonants]]. Some of them have, apart from the preferred/standard sounds, permitted variants intended to cover dissimilitude in pronunciation by speakers of different linguistic backgrounds. | ||
The letters in Lojban and their respective pronunciations are shown in the table below. The [[w:International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols in parentheses indicate alternative pronunciations; preferred pronunciations have no parentheses. | The letters in Lojban and their respective pronunciations are shown in the table below. The [[w:International Phonetic Alphabet|IPA]] symbols in parentheses indicate alternative pronunciations; preferred pronunciations have no parentheses. | ||
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In principle, Lojban may be written in any orthographic system as long as it satisfies the required regularities and unambiguities. Some of the reasons for such elasticity would be as follows: | In principle, Lojban may be written in any orthographic system as long as it satisfies the required regularities and unambiguities. Some of the reasons for such elasticity would be as follows: | ||
# Lojban is defined by the [[w:phoneme]] | # Lojban is defined by the [[w:phoneme|phonemes]] rather than graphemes; as long as they are correctly rendered so as to maintain the Lojbanic audio-visual [[w:isomorphism|isomorphism]], a representational system can be said to be an appropriate orthography of the language; | ||
# Lojban is meant to be as culturally neutral as possible, so it is never crucial or fundamental to claim that some particular orthography of some particular languages (e.g. the Latin alphabet) should be the dominant mode. | # Lojban is meant to be as culturally neutral as possible, so it is never crucial or fundamental to claim that some particular orthography of some particular languages (e.g. the Latin alphabet) should be the dominant mode. | ||
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===Diphthongs=== | ===Diphthongs=== | ||
There are 16 [[w:diphthong]] | There are 16 [[w:diphthong|diphthongs]] (and no [[w:triphthong|triphthongs]]. A distinction between diphthongs and monophthongs can be written by inserting a comma in the Latin alphabet. Vowel hiatus is also prevented by inserting an apostrophe, which usually indicates {{IPA|[h]}}, though there are other valid realizations. For those who have trouble pronouncing certain [[w:consonant cluster|consonant clusters]] here is the option of adding vowels between them ([[w:epenthesis|epenthesis]]), as long as they differ sufficiently from the phonological vowels and are pronounced as short as possible. The resulting additional syllables are not factored in the grammar, including for the purposes of stress determination. | ||
==Linguistic properties== | ==Linguistic properties== | ||
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* is designed to be as culturally neutral as possible. | * is designed to be as culturally neutral as possible. | ||
* allows highly [[w:second-language acquisition|systematic learning]] and use, compared to most natural languages. | * allows highly [[w:second-language acquisition|systematic learning]] and use, compared to most natural languages. | ||
* possesses an intricate system of indicators which effectively communicate contextual [[w:attitude (psychology)|attitude]] or [[w:emotion]] | * possesses an intricate system of indicators which effectively communicate contextual [[w:attitude (psychology)|attitude]] or [[w:emotion|emotions]].<!--* It does not have [[w:simplicity]] as a design criterion.--> | ||
== Grammar == | == Grammar == | ||
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Lojban has three [[w:parts of speech|word-classes]]: predicate words ({{lang|jbo|brivla}}), structure words ({{lang|jbo|cmavo}}), and name words ({{lang|jbo|cmevla}}). Each of them has uniquely identifying properties, so that one can unambiguously recognize which word is of which part of speech in a string of the language. They may be further divided in sub-classes. There also exists a special fragmental form ({{lang|jbo|rafsi}}) assigned to some predicate words and structure words, from which compound words ({{lang|jbo|lujvo}}) may be created.<ref>Cowan, John Woldemar. [https://mw.lojban.org/papri/the_Lojban_Reference_Grammar ''The Complete Lojban Language: 4.1]'' (accessed August 2007)</ref><ref>Nicholas, Nick, and John Cowan. [http://lojban.org/publications/level0/brochure/morphol.html ''What is Lojban?: 2.2''] (accessed August 2007)</ref> | Lojban has three [[w:parts of speech|word-classes]]: predicate words ({{lang|jbo|brivla}}), structure words ({{lang|jbo|cmavo}}), and name words ({{lang|jbo|cmevla}}). Each of them has uniquely identifying properties, so that one can unambiguously recognize which word is of which part of speech in a string of the language. They may be further divided in sub-classes. There also exists a special fragmental form ({{lang|jbo|rafsi}}) assigned to some predicate words and structure words, from which compound words ({{lang|jbo|lujvo}}) may be created.<ref>Cowan, John Woldemar. [https://mw.lojban.org/papri/the_Lojban_Reference_Grammar ''The Complete Lojban Language: 4.1]'' (accessed August 2007)</ref><ref>Nicholas, Nick, and John Cowan. [http://lojban.org/publications/level0/brochure/morphol.html ''What is Lojban?: 2.2''] (accessed August 2007)</ref> | ||
Lojban has also taken the set of evidential indicators from the constructed language [[ | Lojban has also taken the set of evidential indicators from the constructed language [[Láadan]].<ref>Cowan, John. [https://lojban.github.io/cll/13/11/ The Complete Lojban Language 13.11]</ref> | ||
Following the publication of ''The Complete Lojban Language'', it was expected that "the documented lexicon would be baselined, and the combination of lexicon and reference grammar would be frozen for a minimum of 5 years while language usage grew."<ref>[https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Official_Baseline_Statement_(2002/2003) ''Official Baseline Statement'']. lojban.org</ref> As scheduled, this period, which has officially been called the "freeze", expired in 2002. The speakers of Lojban are now free to construct new words and idioms, and decide where the language is heading. | Following the publication of ''The Complete Lojban Language'', it was expected that "the documented lexicon would be baselined, and the combination of lexicon and reference grammar would be frozen for a minimum of 5 years while language usage grew."<ref>[https://mw.lojban.org/papri/Official_Baseline_Statement_(2002/2003) ''Official Baseline Statement'']. lojban.org</ref> As scheduled, this period, which has officially been called the "freeze", expired in 2002. The speakers of Lojban are now free to construct new words and idioms, and decide where the language is heading. | ||
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One could go still further, adding a quite extreme example of its syntactic flexibility. | One could go still further, adding a quite extreme example of its syntactic flexibility. | ||
Lojban can easily "imitate" even one-word sentences from [[w:polysynthetic language]] | Lojban can easily "imitate" even one-word sentences from [[w:polysynthetic language|polysynthetic languages]], for example: | ||
* '''[[w:Nuu-chah-nulth language]]''': ''inkiwihl'minik'isit'' | * '''[[w:Nuu-chah-nulth language|Nuu-chah-nulth language]]''': ''inkiwihl'minik'isit'' | ||
* '''[[w:Gloss (annotation)|Gloss]]''': ''inkiw (fire/burn) -ihl (in-the-house) -'minik (plural) -'is (diminutive) -'it (past-tense)'' | * '''[[w:Gloss (annotation)|Gloss]]''': ''inkiw (fire/burn) -ihl (in-the-house) -'minik (plural) -'is (diminutive) -'it (past-tense)'' | ||
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== See also == | == See also == | ||
* [[Case grammar]] | * [[w:Case grammar|Case grammar]] | ||
* [[FrameNet]] | * [[w:FrameNet|FrameNet]] | ||
* [[Simplified Technical English]] | * [[w:Simplified Technical English|Simplified Technical English]] | ||
* [[Ithkuil]] | * [[Ithkuil]] | ||